Furniture element



June 1968 H. SCHULTZE-BONATZ 3,38

FURNITURE ELEMENT Filed 061.. 7, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 [N VE/V TOR HEI/VZ $(f/Ul TZE'BU/V TZ By E r ATTOR/VEVS June 1968 H. SCHULTZE-BONATZ 3,339,666

FURNITURE ELEMENT Filed Oct. 7, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS June 1968 H. SCHULTZE-BONATZ 3,

FURNITURE ELEMENT Filed Oct. 7, 1966 .5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR fmA gZQXwM ATTOR United States Patent 3,389,666 FURNITURE ELEMENT Heinz Schultze-Bonatz, 1 Schefilerwcg, Hamburg-Gross Flottbek, Germany Filed Oct. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 585,022 Claims priority, application Germany, Oct. 9, 1965, Sch 37,853 2 Claims. (Cl. 10817) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A furniture element comprising a plane rectangular slab having hole-like recesses at least in its border regions and at least in two opposite adjoining edges. The furniture element may be joined to other furniture elements including use of particular connection means. The connection means include pegs and associated locking pins which connect to each other after placing the pegs in one set of hole-like recesses and the locking pins in the hole-like recesses on the opposite adjoining edge. The pegs and associated locking pins are joined at the intersection of the hole-like recesses at the border regions of the plane rectangular slab.

This invention relates to a furniture element which consists of a plane rectangular slab provided with hole-like recesses for receiving connection means. The furniture element is capable of being assembled and reassembled to pieces of furniture and similar commodities of most different form and may have different functions.

Pieces of furniture made of elements, i.e. pieces of furniture capable of being disassembled, particularly shelves, are known in a variety of constructions in the art. The same applies to convertible furniture, i.e. pieces of furniture which can be converted to take different functions. The known standard elements used in furniture designing have the disadvantage that each element can be used for one specific function only. For example, a shelf can only be used as a shelf and a side wall only as a side wall, while multifunction element systems involve high expenditure or other disadvantages.

Known furniture elements also have sharp edges at their ends which are disadvantageous in use (German patent specification 805,546). Moreover, these structural elements are limited as to their utilizability for different functions.

Convertible furniture can only be used for a very modest number of different functions. Such pieces of furniture are also of previously determined shapes, which is due to their often complicated design.

The object of the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages and to enable versatile pieces of furniture to be easily assembled and disassembled by using a furniture element consisting of a plane rectangular slab provided with hole-like recesses for receiving connection means, which is characterized in that the hole-like recesses are provided at least in the border regions and in two opposed edges of the slab, in such a manner that the hole-like recesses in the border regions and the hole-like recesses in the edges of the slab are crosswise intersecting one another, and that the connection means consist of pegs and associated locking pins connectable with the pegs perpendicularly of the longitudinal axis thereof.

The hole-like recesses are preferably arranged with a pitch corresponding to the thickness of the slab or a multiple thereof and at a distance from the slab border corresponding to half a slab thickness, the spacing between adjacent rows of hole-like recesses amounting to one or more slab thicknesses.

3,389,656 Patented June 25, 1968 According to another feature of the invention, it is also possible to provide the hole-like recesses in the form of through bores. Furthermore, they may also serve for the attachment of mountings. The hole-like recesses may be of circular, oval, quadrangular, cylindrical, dovetailed or conical configuration.

The edge lengths of the slabs suitably correspond to a multiple of the slab thickness and form a geometrical progression.

- The slabs are preferably of a homogeneous material, such as wood-wool slabs, but they may also be of composite construction, such as hardboard with hollow spaces, using paper honeycombs.

Several embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1 to 3 are perspective views of different boards or slabs with hole-like recesses;

FIGS. 4 to 6 are sections through the hole-like recesses;

FIGS. 7 to 14 are perspective views of different pieces of furniture composed of the boards or slabs according to the invention, and

FIG. 15 shows a variety of connection means.

FIGS. 1 to 4 show slabs 1 provided with hole-like recesses 2 and 4 in its border regions 3 and edges 5, respectively. Further rows of holes 6 are provided and spaced apart from one another by a distance corresponding to a slab thickness or a multiple thereof. The hole-like recesses 2 in the border regions 3 of the slab 1 may also be provided in the form of through bores 7, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

The recesses 2, 4 and through bores 7 may be circular, oval, square or of slot-shaped or any other suitable configuration, according to the shape of the connection means used. The walls of the recesses 2, 4 and through bores 7 may be parallel as well as conical or trapezoidal. Moreover, it is possible to use either a single shape of hole or a combination of different hole shapes in one slab 1.

FIGS. 7 to 14 show several pieces of furniture assembled from the slabs proposed by the invention which are also used as shelves. FIG. 7 shows the assembly of square slabs 1a of the same size and FIG. 8 shows another piece of furniture assembled from rectangular slabs 1b of the same size.

The pieces offurniture shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 are each assembled from four square slabs 1c and three rectangular slabs 1d, all slabs having different functions.

FIGS. 11 to 14 shows different piececes of furniture, i.e. a childrens stool (FIG. 11), a childrens table (FIG.

12), a childrens chair (FIG. 13), and a flower box.

(FIG. 14), which are obtained by differently assembling the same number of furniture elements 1e and 1f.

FIG. 15 shows a variety of connection means which may widely differ in shape, while having one characteristic feature in common, i.e. they enable the different furniture elements to be easily assembled and disassembled. Such connection means may be of one-part, twopart or multipart construction. A peg 8 threadably received in one of the recesses 2 may be inserted in the adjacent slab and pinned by means of a simple locking pin 9 through one of the recesses 4 in the latter slab. It is also possible to insert two locking pins 9 in a peg 10, Externally knurled screw sockets 11 may be inserted in the recesses 2 and 4. It is also possible to use sockets 12 provided with threaded bores. Both the sockets 11 and 12 may be provided with slots 13.

The recesses in the furniture elements are not only adapted to receive the aforedescribed connection means but may also be used for the locations or fixing of hinge joints, handle strips, legs, pedestals, castors and the like mountings. By the manufacture of such furniture elements it is rendered possible to use each furniture element, if

appropriately dimensioned, for the most diverse functions.

In a cubic piece of furniture, for example, a square slab 1 may be used as a side wall, as the top or bottom, as a shelf, as the door or even as the rear wall.

Using the slabs 1 and the connection means 8, 9 and 10, it is possible to make almost all box-shaped pieces of furniture in the convetnional or approximately convetnional dimensions.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope ofthe invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

I claim:

1. A furniture element comprising:

(a) a plane rectangular slab having hole-like recesses at least in its border regions and at least in two opposite adjoining edges;

(b) said hole-like recesses in said edges of said slab intersecting one another crosswise;

(c) and connection means for connecting one said slab to another slab;

((1) said connection means including pegs and associated locking pins;

(c) said connection means further including means for joining said pegs locaed in said hole-like recesses on one edge of said slab to said associated locking pins located in said intersecting hole-like recesses of said opposite adjoining edge.

2. A furniture element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hole-like recesses are arranged with a pitch corresponding to the thickness of at least one slab and at a distance from the slab border corresponding to half a slab thickness, the spacing between adjacent rows of hole-like recesses amounting to the thickness of at least one slab.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Duncan 312-25 7 BOBBY R. GAY, PrimazyExaminer. G. O. FINC-H, Assistant Examiner. 

